Projectile and target apparatus including scoring pieces adopted for attachment to the projectile

ABSTRACT

A game set including a tossing bowl, scoring chips, and a pair of goals. The scoring chips consist of a pair of small discs spaced apart from one another and joined by a central connector at a spacing sufficient to enable them to be releasably clipped onto the rim of the tossing bowl with a yielding frictional grip. The players stand behind the goals and toss the bowl over both goals, whereupon an opponent attempts to catch the bowl and toss it back. Upon a successful catch or throw an additional chip is attached and the tossing is continued with additional taken care not to dislodge the attached chip.

United States Patent Todd [H] 3,711,095 51 Jan. 16, 1973 [541 PROJECTILEAND TARGET APPARATUS mcwnrgc SC 0RING, PIECES ADAPTED FOR ATTACHMENT TOTHE PROJECTILE [76] Inventor: William B. Todd, 4225 Chalmers Avenue,Detroit, Mich. 48215 [22] Filed: Nov. 3, 1971 [21] Appl. No.: 195,221

[52] [1.8. CI. ..273/95 R, 273/102 R 3,208,444 9/1965 Sipos ....273/95 RPrimary Examiner-Anton O. Oechsle Assistant Examiner-Marvin SiskindAttorney-Willis Bugbee [57] ABSTRACT A game set including a tossingbowl, scoring chips, and a pair of goals. The scoring chips consist of apair of small discs spaced apart from one another and joined by acentral connector at a spacing sufficient to enable them to bereleasably clipped onto the rim of the tossing bowl with a yieldingfrictional grip. The players stand behind the goals and toss the bowlover both goals, whereupon an opponent attempts to catch the bowl andtoss it back. Upon a successful catch or throw an additional chip isattached and the tossing is continued with additional taken care not todislodge the attached chip.

10 Claims, 7 Drawing Figures PROJECTILE AND TARGET APPARATUS INCLUDINGSCORING PIECES ADOPTED FOR ATTACHMENT TO THE PROJECTILE The two playersstand back of their respective goals and the starting player, selectedby chance, tosses the bowl, with the starting chip attached, over bothgoals whereupon his opponent attempts to catch it and toss it backwithout dislodging the attached chip. The tossing of the bowl iscontinued back and forth over both goals, attaching scoring chips to thebowl in the manner set forth more fully below.

In the drawings,

FIG. 1 is a perspective view, on a reduced scale, showing the game ofthe present invention being played, with the tossing bowl, equipped withchips, in mid-air,

FIG. 2 is a side elevation, on a reduced scale, of a tossing bowl withtwo chips seated on its rim;

FIG. 3 is a top plan view, upon a slightly enlarged scale, of thetossing bowl shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a vertical section taken along the line 44 in FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a front elevation, life-size, of one of the scoring chips;

FIG. 6 is a vertical section taken along the line 6-6 in FIG. 5; and

FIG. 7 is a vertical section through a modified chip of convexo-concaveshape.

Referring to FIG. I generally, there is shown therein a tossing andcatching game set, generally designated 10, as consisting of a tossingbowl 12 to the rim of which grooved game pieces or chips 14 may beyieldably and releasably attached. The game set also includes a pair ofsimilargoals 16 over which the bowl 12 is tossed back and forth duringplay.

The bowl 12 (FIGS. 2, 3 and 4) as its name suggests has a dished bodyhaving a bottom wall 18 from which an annular side wall 20 extendsupward to a peripheral portion or rim 22. The bottom wall 18 ispreferably considerably thicker than the side wall 20 in order toprovide a stabilizing weight portion or ballast 24 tending to hold therim 22 uppermost while the bowl I2 is being tossed back and forth duringplay in the manner described below. The how] 10 is conveniently made ofa durable synthetic plastic, such as a high impact plastic of the typeknown to those skilled in the plastic art and conveniently formed byconventional molding operations. It will be understood, however, thatthe weighted portion or ballast 24 may consist of a separate weightelement of a heavier material than the remainder of the bowl, forexample, of metallic lead or the like, attached in any suitable way asby a fastener.

The rim 22 of the side wall 20 is sufficiently thin for the yielding andreleasable attachment of the grooved game pieces or chips 14, asdiscussed more fully below. The side wall 20 is preferably of arcuatecross-section. The body 15 has a convex external surface 25 tofacilitate catching it in the palms of the hands, a concave internalside surface 27 and a flat internal bottom surface 26, and is of lessthan hemispherical shape to facilitate clipping the chips to the rim 22thereof. Such a shape has been referred to in solid geometry as aspherical segment of one base, the base being the circular plane 28coinciding with and bounded by the edge 30 of the rim 22.

Each game piece or chip 14 (FIGS. 5 and 6) consists of a pair of discs32 spaced axially apart from one another yet joined to one another by acentral connector 34. The discs 32 are preferably of circular shape withrims 36 and are conveniently molded from resilient synthetic plasticmaterial. The connector 34 may consist, for example, of a rivet with anenlarged head 38 on one end of a shank 40 which passes through a spacer42 such as a washer, and terminating in an upset end 44 at the oppositeend of the rivet from the head 38. It is also contemplated that theconnector 34 should be formed integral with the discs 32 by a singlemolding operation. In either case, the above-described constructionforms an annular groove 46 between the discs 32 which is approximatelythe thickness of slightly less than the thickness of the bowl rim 28, sothat when the clip 14 is clipped onto the rim 22 it yieldingly butreleasably grips the rim 22. The groove 46 is also made slightly lessthan the thickness of each disc 32 so that another chip or series ofchips 14 can be mounted on a previously applied row of chips 14, asshown in FIG. 1. The bowl 12 is of such size as to accommodate a singlecircular group of chips 14 attached directly to the rim portion 22, andtwo additional circular groups attached to the chips already pressedonto the bowl rim 22.

The modified game piece or chip, generally designated 50, shown in FIG.7 is formed of, a pair of axiallyspaced discal shells S2 of arcuate orconvexoconcave configuration interconnected and spaced apart from oneanother by a central connector 54 shown diagrammatically as a spacingplug in FIG. 7 but also adapted to employ the same rivet constructionshown in FIG. 6. The shells 52 preferably have facing convex and concavesurfaces 56 and 58 of substantially the same radii of curvature as theexternal and internal surfaces 25 and 27 of the side wall 20 of the bowlI2, and with a groove 60 therebetween of a width slightly less than thethickness of the rim portion 22 of the side wall 20 in order to providea yielding frictional grip therebetween.

Each goal 16 for convenience oftransportation and storage consists of apair of base blocks or supporting members 62 (FIG. 1) of heavy materialhaving sockets 64 in the top surface thereof. Seated in. each of thesockets 64 is a rod or upright 66, on the upper ends of which aremounted couplings 68 for the opposite ends 70 of a flexible goal line,cord, orfilamentary connector 72 stretched therebetween. Each upright 66is preferably formed of a pair of telescoping tubular members 74 and 76overlapping at 78 and slidably engaging one another for compactness ofstorage and transportation. 1

In playing this game, the person who is to have th first service ischosen. by chance, as by tossing a coin. At the start, each player ispermitted. three practice tosses before scoring commences. The firstserver, thus chosen, attaches the extra chip 14 to the rim. of the bowll2 and while standing behind the goal. line, represented by the core 72nearest him, endeavors to hand or in both hands. If he catches it in onehand, he

scores two points, or if in two hands one point. He then attaches one ofhis own chips 14 to the rim of the bowl l2 and tries to toss it backover both goal lines to his opponent. If, on the other hand, he hasdropped the bowl, or failed to catch it, he still attaches one of hisown chips but does not score. If, however, he has dislodgedthe initialchip (which does not count in scoring) he reattaches it before he tossesthe bowl back to his opponent. If the bowl goes wild, i.e. it does notgo over the bowl cord 72 or goes over the opponents head, the tosser hasto pick it up and replace spilled chips, if any, and three points aresubtracted from the tossers score. Assuming that the bowl 12 wasproperly returned and properly caught by the opponent, the latter scorestwo points if he catches it with one hand or one point if he catches itwith two hands without dislodging the two chips attached to the rim ofthe bowl. He then adds one of his own chips to the two already on the'rim of the bowl and tosses it back across the two goal linesor cords72. The play continues in this manner, each player who successfullycatches it attaching one or two chips if a two-handed or onehandedcatch, and so on until all 45 chips 14 have been attached to the bowl12, either directly to the rim portion 22 thereof (FIG. 4) or on top ofchips already attached to the rim, as shown in FIG. 1. The game endswhen all forty-five chips 14 have been attached to the bowl l2,whereupon the player having the higher score Wll'lS.

This game may be played either indoors or out-ofdoors, by juveniles aswell as by adults, and provides excellent exercise as well as furtheringweight reduction. It also provides amusement at parties.

l claim:

1. A tossing and catching game set comprising a tossing bowl having adished body with a bottom wall and with a side wall extending upwardfrom said bottom wall and having a rim at the top thereof,

a multiplicity of game pieces of resilient material having peripheralrecesses therein yieldingly and releasably engageable with said rim,

and a pair of goal structures adapted to be positioned in spacedparallel relationship to one another upon a player-supporting surface,

each goal structure having a pair of uprights adapted to be spacedlaterally apart from one another on the player-supporting surface, andalso having a horizontal goal member extending between the upperportions of said uprights, wherein said tossing bowl is tossed betweenplayers standing behind said goal structures and a game piece isattached to the rim of said bowl after a successful toss or catch.

2. A tossing and catching game set, according to claim 1, wherein saidbowl has a ballast portion disposed adjacent said bottom wall.

3. A tossing and catching game set, according to claim 2, wherein saidballast portion includes a bottom wall which is thicker than said sidewall.

4. A tossing and catching game set, according to claim 2, wherein saidballast portion includes a layer of ballast material of greater densitythan the material of said bowl body.

5. A tossing and catching game set, according to claim 1, whereincertain of said game pieces comprise discs spaced axiall apart from oneanother by a distance approxima ely equal to the thickness of said rim,and wherein a centrally-disposed spacing portion interconnects saiddiscs.

6. A tossing and catching game set, according to claim 5, wherein saidspacing portion comprises a headed fastener centrally interconnectingsaid discs.

7. A tossing and catching game set, according to claim 5, wherein saiddiscs are of convexo-concave configuration.

8. A tossing and catching game set, according to claim 1, wherein eachgoal structure also includes a pair of base members with sockets thereinsnugly receiving the lower end portions of said uprights.

9. A tossing and catching game set, according to claim 1, wherein eachof said uprights includes a pair of telescoping members slidablyengaging one another.

10. A tossing and catching game set, according to claim 1, wherein saidhorizontal goal member comprises a flexible filamentary connectorhaving'its opposite ends secured to said upper portions of saiduprights.

1. A tossing and catching game set comprising a tossing bowl having adished body with a bottom wall and with a side wall extending upwardfrom said bottom wall and having a rim at the top thereof, amultiplicity of game pieces of resilient material having peripheralrecesses therein yieldingly and releasably engageable with said rim, anda pair of goal structures adapted to be positioned in spaced parallelrelationship to one another upon a player-supporting surface, each goalstructure having a pair of uprights adapted to be spaced laterally apartfrom one another on the playersupporting surface, and also having ahorizontal goal member extending between the upper portions of saiduprights, wherein said tossing bowl is tossed between players standingbehind said goal structures and a game piece is attached to the rim ofsaid bowl after a successful toss or catch.
 2. A tossing and catchinggame set, according to claim 1, wherein said bowl has a ballast portiondisposed adjacent said bottom wall.
 3. A tossing and catching game set,according to claim 2, wherein said ballast portion includes a bottomwall which is thicker than said side wall.
 4. A tossing and catchinggame set, according to claim 2, wherein said ballast portion includes alayer of ballast material of greater density than the material of saidbowl body.
 5. A tossing and catching game set, according to claim 1,wherein certain of said game pieces comprise discs spaced axially apartfrom one another by a distance approximately equal to the thickness ofsaid rim, and wherein a centrally-disposed spacing portion interconnectssaid discs.
 6. A tossing and catching game set, according to claim 5,wherein said spacing portion comprises a headed fastener centrallyinterconnecting said discs.
 7. A tossing and catching game set,according to claim 5, wherein said discs are of convexo-concaveconfiguration.
 8. A tossing and catching game set, according to claim 1,wherein each goal structure also includes a pair of base members withsockets therein snugly receiving the lower end portions of saiduprights.
 9. A tossing and catching game set, according to claim 1,wherein each of said uprights includes a pair of telescoping membersslidably engaging one another.
 10. A tossing and catching game set,according to claim 1, wherein said horizontal goal member comprises aflexible filamentary connector having its opposite ends secured to saidupper portions of said uprights.